Some thoughts on the Souls in Purgatory

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I have an interesting story about the Holy Souls, I have been desperately trying to find the link for you but have lost it (will keep looking) but it was a highly regarded source.
A young English priest spending his first Christmas in a parish decided to get up early on Christmas morning and spend two hours in prayer before preparing for the first Mass of the day (bless him). Anyway he entered the Church to find it full of badly dressed people of various sexes and ages, some of them actually dressed in rags and some muffled up so that you could hardly see their faces. They were totally still and in total silence and all staring directly at the tabernacle.
He was sure that he had locked the doors the night before but went to check, every door was secure. He approached a woman and asked who she was and how she had got in. She just looked at him listlessly and said, 'Oh, sometimes strange things happen at Christmas' and went back to staring at the tabernacle. He was very confused but tried to say some prayers at the altar rail and turned around to see what they were doing and they had all gone.
He rang an old priest in a neighbouring parish and told him what had happened and asked what it could mean. The old priest said, 'Oh they were souls who chattered at Mass or dressed up to show off or showed too much flesh. They have probably been there for years and are probably there now, they want you to pray for them' and received permission to be visible to you.

 

WOW, what a great story, thank you, Steve

 

1. The Good Friday prayer for the Holy Souls:

(revealed to St. Bridget that if said devoutly 33 times on Good Friday-- 33 souls will be released from Purgatory. 3 souls on ordinary Fridays.)
"I adore Thee, O Holy Cross, which has been adorned with the tender, delicate and venerable hands and feet of my Saviour, Jesus Christ, and immured with the Precious Blood. I adore Thee, my God, nailed to the Cross for me. I adore Thee again, O Holy Cross, for the love of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen."

 

please tell me more Oksana.
I believe soe souls seem to be specially set aside by God to pray for the Holy Souls.

I always feel guilty when I read about them, I keep trying to remember them and forget.

One time my grandmother , when she was a girl had to go to the Sacrd Heart Church in CLones, Ireland to fetch a priest for her own grandmother, who was ill.

It was just after twilight and a priest was walking up and down outside the parochial house. Although my mother addressed him several times the old priest reading his breviary.

She then rung the door bell in the rebytery but the hosue keeper told her all the priests were out. My grandmother mentioned the old priest outside and the housekeeper went pale. She showed my grandmother a pitcure of him and when she confirmed it was told her it was a parish priest who died several years previously.

i elieve this priest was serving his purgatory there. I also suspect he had een so busy he had missed doing his breviary.

 

THANK YOU, STEVE.

 

Oh, he was so busy, he missed doing his breviary. It reminds me of a story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She was in a car with a priest, a bishop I think, and he was going on and on about all he was doing, while Mother Teresa and one of her sisters quietly prayed the rosary. He finally said, Why Mother, I'm so busy, I don't even have time to pray. Without missing a beat, Mother Teresa looked up from her rosary and said: Father, if your'e too busy to pray, your'e too busy!.

 

My mom was already living here, in the US with me when this happened. She has a list of deceased relatives ( and not only) for whom her friend in Ukraine is giving donations for the Masses - for years now ( they have some financial arrangement which I have no part of). So there are two relatives named Alexandra in the list and one night my mom has a dream when one Alexandra is appearing to her in a dream and just stares at her, not telling anything. Then the dream happens again and again. This particular Alexandra is an aunt of my father, so eventually she tells my father that she is having this strange dream and she does not know what she wants of her - she is in a list and the Masses are delivered for her. Unless she was dropped from the list accidentally. So she calls her friend in Ukraine and asks if she can check if there are two ladies with the same name in the list. While the friend is checking she is absolutely sure that there is no way she could have been dropped, so when the friend announces - there is only one Alexandra in the list - my mom almost faints. Obviously, the list is corrected, the Masses delivered and the soul is not coming anymore.

 

The other one is my mom's deceased friend ( from her school years). One night around Christmas in 2005 or 2006 she has a dream about this friend ( and she has not seen her or spoken to for decades) which clearly looks like she has died. My mom picks up a telephone the very next day and calls a mutual friend in Ukraine who knows both of them and inquires about that one she had a dream about( let's call her Mary). The other friend does not know anything, and heard form Mary that she is not so well, but nothing special. All the ladies are in their 70s. At the time of Easter my mom calls this mutual friend again and then she tells her that Mary died on that particular day when my mom had a dream about her. So now my mom thinks her duty is to offer Masses for Mary and starts doing so. In several months she again has a dream about Mary that Mary is asking her for food - and my mom finds out that she was also accidentally dropped from that very list of relatives and friends the Masses are being offered for ( those are long and names are repeated so could happen when the nun is putting the list into the Church book).

She was also asked for food or drink, or clothes ( in dreams by deceased people) by people whom she has not seen 40 years, like her school teacher. It also seems that when poor souls need the prayers and Masses offered for them they keep staring at you in the dreams - that is what my mom tells.

 

What wonderful stories. I think the way it works is that people who pray for these Holy Souls draw them to themselves like moths to candles. As of course they would. There's no good begging for help from someone who couldn't care.

I can't claim to have a huge devotion to the Holy Souls but I do see them from time to time, also the ones from heaven especially relatives. They don't forget us when they die. Love never ends.

I am inclined to think the deeper down there they 're the less they get out on visits for help. .

They are very,very,very much to be pitied, especially those on the bottom level. Their sufferings are terrible.

 

The reason that I was raised in the Church was that my father saw one of the Holy Souls who told him something would happen and it did.
My father and mother were raised Catholic and married in a Catholic church and had us children baptised but that was it. They didn't go to Mass and neither did we nor would we ever I suppose except for a supernatural event. My father had visited his home town about 30 miles away. He had gone to see his family and, specifically to visit his uncle Tommy who was very ill. Tommy was loved within his family which was large and fractious and Tommy was the peacemaker among them all.
On his way home on the Sunday night, my father ran for the last train which was moving out of the station and he fell between the platform and the train. He was conscious long enough to know that he had lost half of his right hand.
He awoke in hospital and his first thought was that he was now unemployable and couldn't keep us. He worked with his hands building and repairing optical instruments which required a great deal of close careful work. As he pondered his situation he became more and more distraught and then, his uncle Tommy was at the end of the bed and told him not to worry, that the doctors would give him new fingers and he would go back to his old job. When his mother arrived to see him, she told him that Tommy had died and he told that he already knew because he had been to see him.
The doctors built up stumps for his thumb and three fingers that looked horrible (like misshapen sausages) but were sufficiently sensitive and mobile to enable him to go back to work eventually. My sister, who was the only one of us of school age was moved from the local school to a Catholic school, where we were also sent when we reached school age and we all attended Mass each week.
If it hadn't been for the fall and for uncle Tommy's visit and reassurance, I almost certainly wouldn't be a practicing Catholic. So I think a lot about the Holy Souls, bless them.

 

What a really marvellous, wonderful story, Steve.

Thanks so much for telling it.

 

Steve, this is a great story. God Bless uncle Tommy's soul!

 

Daily Prayer for the Dead
O God, the Creater and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids, the remission of all their sins, that, through devout prayers, they may obtain the pardon which they always desired. Who live etc. Amen

Amen, amen I say unto you , unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shalll not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has life everlasting and I will raise him up on the last day.

 

Ways to help the Holy Souls

• The best way to help is to have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered up for them or devoutly assist at Holy Mass for their relief.

• Make the Stations of the Cross for their consolation.

• Pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary for them.

• Gain indulgences for them.

• Offer up pains, self-denials and sufferings for their relief.

• Pray, offer up works of mercy and practice virtues for their consolation.

• Ask the Blessed Mother to chose an unknown soul for you to pray for.

• Lovingly sprinkle Holy Water, in faith and with trust, for their cleansing.

• Light their darkness, as an act of love, by burning a blessed candle for them.

• Liturgical prayers like: De Profundis (Psalm 129 {Official prayer for the Holy Souls in purgatory} , found in most Catholic prayer books.)

• Pray the Office of the Dead or Vespers, the liturgical hours of the Church.

• "Eternal Rest" prayer: Eternal Rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual live shine on them and may the souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed rest in peace.

• Prayers from the Roman Missal for the Souls in Purgatory

• Visit a Church or Chapel and spend some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament for their comfort and relief.

• Visit a Cemetery, and pick out a number of grave stones and say some prayers for their souls. (From November 1st - 8th, an plenary indulgence can be obtained for the departed souls by devoutly visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead.)

 

Hi Steve, I know someone who is very devoted to the Holy Souls,...he knows the best thing to do is to have the Holy Sacrafice of the Mass offered for them. He keeps a can in Church for donations, and collects soda bottles ,..anything to get the money to have Masses said,...heck, I've even seen him on the side of the highway looking for bottles. I think this humble soul has many friends in purgatory

 

During this, Year of Faith..a plenary indulgence can be gained daily by the following and offered for the souls in purgatory,..the easiest I think is the reading of the CCC
"During the Year of Faith, which will last from 11 October 2012 to 24 November 2013, Plenary Indulgence for the temporal punishment of sins, imparted by the mercy of God and applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful, may be obtained by all faithful who, truly penitent, take Sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and pray in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
"...Plenary Indulgence for the temporal punishment of sins, imparted by the mercy of God and applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful, may be obtained by all faithful who, truly penitent, take Sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and pray in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff."
(A) Each time they attend at least three sermons during the Holy Missions, or at least three lessons on the Acts of the Council or the articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in church or any other suitable location.
(B) Each time they visit, in the course of a pilgrimage, a papal basilica, a Christian catacomb, a cathedral church or a holy site designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith (for example, minor basilicas and shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Apostles or patron saints), and there participate in a sacred celebration, or at least remain for a congruous period of time in prayer and pious meditation, concluding with the recitation of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, depending on the circumstances, to the Holy Apostles and patron saints.
(C) Each time that, on the days designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith, ... in any sacred place, they participate in a solemn celebration of the Eucharist or the Liturgy of the Hours, adding thereto the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form.
(D) On any day they chose, during the Year of Faith, if they make a pious visit to the baptistery, or other place in which they received the Sacrament of Baptism, and there renew their baptismal promises in any legitimate form."
---from Vatican Information Service. . . .

 

I haven't read totally through this thread, has anyone read an Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory???? Amazing insight to the suffering souls and the need for our prayers.

 

Yes I read it online Donna. It certainly makes you think.

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6253

St Margaret Mary says that one of the nuns in her convent would be in purgatory until the end of time. Scarey thought, the woman was very arrogant, nasty and cruel.

I think at Fatima Our Lady said a young teenage girl who had just died would also be in purgatory till the end of the world...much to think on.

I always pray for the deepest down ones.

 

Gosh, what a story and very moving. Thanks for sharing.